


Virus

by orphan_account



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Flirting, Flirting, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Teen Romance, Zombie Apocalypse, zombie/human relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 09:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11757324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “So you found a pretentious freak of nature who pulled an Edward Cullen and didn’t eat you.”“Yes. I think. I didn’t read the Twilight series.”Alternatively: Kyungsoo refrains from eating Jongin's brains.





	Virus

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning: Jongin has some pretty questionable survival tactics because this was written by someone who would die immediately in the zombie apocalypse. Enjoy!

Jongin startles awake to the sound of a branch snapping a few meters away.  He’s alert in seconds, scanning the area. He’s a few meters from the edge of the forest before him and everything is dim, but the leaves are sparse enough that some moonlight can peak through. He sits, breath held, and listens.

 

A rustle of bushes this time, a little closer now, and Jongin curses his luck; trust the only zombie to come when he’s on guard duty, just fantastic. 

 

He shifts quietly, placing his hands on the ground and moving into a crouching position so he’s ready to run.  He isn’t sure where the zombie is or how well it can hear him, but he slows his breathing so even the leaves directly in front of him don’t stir. Everything is still, but then he hears it一a muffled cough.

 

Jongin’s head spins.  He runs through all the possibilities.  Whatever’s out there,  _ whoever _ even, isn’t a zombie.  It can’t be.  Zombies don’t cough or catch colds or get itchy throats.  He could have misheard; maybe it was an animal?  Are there even animals left with all the hungry zombies in the area?  It could be a human.  Jongin  _ prays _ it’s a human. There were always occasional stragglers.

 

However, the chances of a survivor being out there are slim. No one who has survived this long would be stupid enough to travel through a forest at night.  Jongin tightens his grip on his knife, holding the blade the way Taemin taught him, and steels his nerves, preparing for a fight. If it’s a zombie, he could always run or hide. 

 

Suddenly, before he could do anything, something rushes through a nearby bush and, Jongin assumes, tackles the person. He hears a dull sound when they collide with the ground, and the person lets out a scream.

 

Jongin sprints in the direction the noise is coming from before he can stop himself, but it’s too late. There’s a body on the ground, head split open and dark liquid seeping into the ground. There’s a zombie there, and somehow it’s only when Jongin sees him that he realizes what a mistake he’s made. The zombie is hunched over the body, and Jongin is frozen in terror.

 

It turns and stares at him with bloodshot eyes. Jongin flinches bodily, the shock and fear lancing through him like he’s suddenly been dipped in ice water. Everything in his mind goes blank, radio static as he stands there, sitting prey. It shifts to meet him. Jongin's breath hitches. It's all too familiar. That fluid shift of muscle. The first time he had seen it, well over a year ago, he was shocked. He thought zombies would move woodenly, disjointedly like a puppet with an invisible master. But the movies were wrong. In front of him stood a real predator, with all the lethal agility it needed to wipe out human civilization.

 

Jongin looks over to his right.  There’s a decaying library building there, surviving after years of chaos.  He counts seven broken windows on the second floor, and then wonders why he’s still alive.

 

He looks back at the zombie. He hasn't moved.

 

Months of complacency seem to have worn Jongin's reflexes down, but he isn't a survivor for nothing. He outran those fuckers during both waves of the outbreak, and he can do it again.

The zombie takes a step, and before he even puts his foot down, Jongin is bolting, sprinting to the library and using the momentum from his speed to catapult himself to the top of a nearby dumpster and again onto the building. His heart is rabbiting, and he searches around for an escape.

The zombie seems unperturbed that Jongin got away. He follows Jongin, standing below him on the ground and looking up. Jongin furrows his eyebrows.  _ Is it smirking at him right now?  _ Jongin might be indignant if he isn't so sure he imagined it. The thing is just playing some cruel game of cat and mouse with him. Is the zombie so sated on the first human that it doesn’t even care if he gets away?

If that’s the case then Jongin is willing to wait it out. His scent is likely to be overwhelmed by that of the first human—Jongin shudders at the memory of the corpse—so others zombies probably won't get to him, and this zombie will probably get bored eventually. 

 

It's not the most foolproof plan Jongin has ever come up with, but it's near the end of his guard shift, and his body suddenly feels far too heavy. He feels a strange mix of adrenaline and fatigue pump through him, sleep deprived from having had to take over Zitao's guard shift too since he'd hurt his ankle. He figures the zombie can't get to where he is on the library or else he would have done so already, and without thinking too much into the seemingly satisfied look on the zombie's face, Jongin curls up near the centre of the rooftop and sleeps, hand resting on his knife. He knows this is a terrible plan, but in this state it's all he can do.

 

~

 

Jongin rolls over blearily in his sleep and gropes around the rooftop for his knife. After a few seconds of increasingly panicked searching, he opens his eyes to find the zombie from earlier sitting next to him. He jolts up and scrambles backwards on the tiled rooftop. “ _ Motherfucker— _” 

 

The zombie turns to him, and Jongin sees him twisting his knife in his hands. Jongin pales, and for one despairing, fatalistic moment, he contemplates just going back to sleep. Like, if he’s screwed either way, he might as well die doing what he loves most.

 

The zombie laughs. “It’s actually Kyungsoo, but close.”

 

Jongin startles so violently he thinks he pulls something, but then he relaxes. Everything's okay then; he’s still dreaming. “You can talk,” he says.

 

“Correct.” The thing— _ Kyungsoo _ —laughs, and pats the shingles next to him in invitation.

 

Jongin figured he was dreaming anyway and scooted next to him. His dream was strangely meticulous in its level of detail, giving Kyungsoo a scent that was bloody and woodsy and damp. Jongin didn’t know what to make of it.

 

“This is a nice knife,” Kyungsoo says, fiddling with the object and touching the sharp blade with his finger.

 

Jongin nods, watching him.

 

“Do you want it back?” asks Kyungsoo, holding it out. Jongin nods vigorously and breathes a silent sigh of relief when he has it in his hand again, the familiar weight his barrier against danger.

 

“It's so weird that I get to talk to you without you running away. You know I could eat you, right? Do you not care at all that there’s a zombie right next to you?” Kyungsoo asks, lying back with his arms crossed beneath his head. He’s in an incredibly vulnerable position. With his arms behind his head, he wouldn’t be able to stop Jongin from stabbing him in his exposed torso, but Jongin prides himself on being fair, so he’ll refrain from stabbing a zombie if it’s refraining from eating him.

 

“I think if you wanted to eat me you would have by now. Do you not care at all that there’s a human right next to you?” Jongin says, looking away from Kyungsoo's prone figure and instead at the sparse expanse of trees beneath them. Kyungsoo hums and rolls over in his peripherals.

 

"By some miracle, there was a person in the forest last night, so after eating their brains and chasing you up here, I went back and ate some of their other organs too," Kyungsoo watched Jongin as he talks, lying on his side and propped up on an elbow. Jongin tries not to outwardly cringe at the mental imagery. "It was really good," Kyungsoo says, "I hadn't eaten properly in forever. So lucky for you, I'm not hungry anymore." He sighs dreamily, and Jongin totally relates to that feeling. Just, with human food like ice cream and pizza, not flesh and brain matter.

 

"I don't know how I feel about that," he says.

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"Someone died so you wouldn't eat me. Now, I feel like I don’t deserve to be alive.”

 

Kyungsoo huffs out a laugh as he sits up. Jongin can't see what's so funny about it. “Why don’t you think you deserve it?”

 

“Well they could have been an amazing person that could have survived, but you killed them so I, a mediocre high school kid who has no accomplishments, could live?" Jongin furrows his eyebrows seeing Kyungsoo's smirk.

 

"It's kinda funny," Kyungsoo says, "that you're saying this to a zombie. I eat people to survive, and maybe at some point, I had the blood of the person who potentially cures the zombie infection dribbling down my chin-" Jongin winces at the thought. 

 

"Which would suck," Kyungsoo continues, "but we can't change whether it happened or not, so you shouldn't beat yourself up over it. You can't afford virtue in the apocalypse, so just do what you can to survive and try to harm others as little as possible.

 

"At least," Kyungsoo pauses, suddenly awkward, "that's just what I think. It's how I justify my existence."

 

"Is that why you aren't eating me right now?"

 

"Yeah. Although, you being hot and crazy enough to talk to a zombie definitely doesn't hurt."

 

Jongin blinks. Hot? "Uhm," he tries not to blush, "Thanks. You're interesting to talk to. And you don't smell as bad as other zombies." Way to compliment someone, Jongin.

 

Kyungsoo just laughs. "I took a dip in the pond before coming, that's why."

 

Jongin just nods and doesn't reply, suddenly self-conscious in front of this zombie he just met. They sit in silence for a bit, and Jongin almost dozes off in the sun again before remembering Taemin with a jolt. He scrambles to his feet and startles Kyungsoo.

 

"You're going?" Kyungsoo looks disappointed.

 

"Yeah," Jongin breathes, "They're probably wondering where I am."

 

“Can you tell me your name first?”

 

“Jongin.”

 

"Alright. Well, I'll see you around," Kyungsoo says, slowly as if he doesn't believe those words. Jongin resolves to find him again.

 

He leaves without looking back, jumping back down the dumpster and then to the ground. In the daylight, he can see his surroundings, all green and brown and picturesque without zombies to ruin the atmosphere. Forests aren’t the most conducive to survival since it’s harder to see zombies coming and harder to escape, but Jongin’s tiny group of six had no choice but to stop there after Zitao injured his ankle fighting a zombie. It’s not bad for a temporary hideout. It probably used to beautiful and romantic, a forest hiding a library built of red bricks and stores packed next to each other selling antiques and trinkets, a small freshwater pond around the southwestern border of the forest with a line of fountains in the middle. Now, the trails in the forest have grown over almost completely, the fountains in the pond don’t work, and Jongin and his friends inhabited the biggest shop they could find.

 

Jongin walks into the dilapidated clothing store, mind wandering, before he hears someone shout “Jongin!”

He looks up to see Taemin running at him.

“Where the fuck were you?” Taemin says as he grabs Jongin’s shoulders and checks for injuries. Jongin is hit with a wave of guilt. Taemin is the unofficial leader of the group, naturally controlling and organized and strategic and confident. Had they lost Jongin, Taemin would have felt personally responsible, and the absence of his best friend must have taken a toll on him.

“I’m really sorry I disappeared,” Jongin says as Taemin moves him around and pats him down. “But I think I met one,” he says, mind flooded with Kyungsoo. Now that he’s back in a familiar place, the strange events from this morning seem even more like a dream. He’s not really sure how to explain to Taemin that he had been talking to a zombie, or that zombies could talk at all. 

“They’re actually less like mindless monsters and kind of just like cannibals,” is what he finally settles with.

“What the fuck,” Taemin says. He stops his external autopsy report to glare at Jongin. Jongin knows from the look of suspicion they’re on the same page.

“I met one, Tae. He told me his name. We actually talked and stuff.”

“A zombie?”

“Yes! We talked, and he took my knife while I was sleeping, but he gave it back when I asked for it and didn’t try to eat me, and he’s actually kind of smart? Well, smart isn’t the right word for it, but he was cool, like articulate and thoughtful and somewhat confident.” Every word out of Jongin’s mouth was lifting Taemin’s eyebrows a little.

“So you found a pretentious freak of nature who pulled an Edward Cullen and didn’t eat you.”

“Yes. I think. I didn’t read the Twilight series.”

Taemin drags a hand down his face. “Jongin…”

“You don’t believe me?” Jongin’s not hurt, but he does feel almost slighted. He’s never lied in all his years of friendship with Taemin, and Taemin should know Jongin would only say these things if he was sure. It’s a lot to ask, Jongin knows, but Taemin should at least look more perplexed than he does tired.

“Let’s find the others first,” Taemin says instead, turning on his heel. “We can talk about this later.”

They make their way to the little area of the shop their group dubbed the common corner.  Soojung, Zitao, and Junhong were there, the 3 of them making up half their usual crowd since Amber is on guard duty. Junhong leaps to his feet with a delighted shout upon seeing Jongin, and the others follow with hugs and hefty pats on the back and obvious questions that Jongin answers vaguely without mentioning Kyungsoo.

~

 

That night, Jongin sits outside with Taemin during his guard shift. They usually guard the border of the forest since the zombies usually try to sneak through the thick underbrush, and until this morning, they hadn't had an incident in a while. When Amber came back from her shift she complained about a sudden influx of zombies, and Jongin sees it now. His guard shifts were usually easy, perhaps one or two zombies that would pass him by, and since they’d started living in the area Jongin has only had to kill a couple. Now, there are three or four at all times. They weave through the trees, all headed in the same direction with a desperate urgency.

 

Supposedly, zombies moved slowly to conserve energy for moments when they needed it, like when they smell fresh blood nearby. In the forest, most of them ambled along slowly while one or two zombies passed with the fluidity and speed of newly turned zombies with lots of energy, the way all of them moved during the first wave of infection. Jongin shivered.

 

He sat out with Taemin because he wanted to talk about Kyungsoo, but he ends up distracted by the sight of them all. “Where did they all come from?”

 

“I don’t know,” Taemin mutters; he’s barely audible. “I think they just migrated. Why are they  _ here, _ though? Can they smell us?”

 

“The zombie I met this morning… I met him after he hunted down a person in the forest.”

 

“Christ. You think they can smell it or something?”

 

“Yeah,” Jongin breathes, “there can’t be much of the body left, right? Do you think they’ll leave?”

 

Taemin shook his head. “I don’t know, but probably not as soon as we need them to. They’re bound to find us eventually, and Zitao’s still injured so we can’t relocate.”

 

Jongin bites his lip and stays silent. After a couple beats Taemin says, “We need to get rid of them.”

 

Jongin blinks “How?”

 

“I don’t know, but they’re jeopardizing our chances of survival.”

 

Taemin looks over, probably sensing with that intuition that longtime friends have that Jongin’s less than enthusiastic about the idea.

 

“We can talk about it later. Go sleep, Jongin,” he says,

 

Jongin studies Taemin. He’s changed. Jongin knew it was inevitable, but it’s strange being faced with it suddenly. It kind of scares Jongin how they might all be unrecognizable in a number of years, but for now he just sighs and leaves, squeezing Taemin’s shoulder as he goes.

 

Maybe he’ll lay low for a few days. Seeing Kyungsoo again can wait.

 

~

 

The dark is familiar, but that doesn't make it a friend by any stretch. Jongin shudders as something brushes feather light past his arm, not knowing if it was a stray spider web, a leaf, or in some horrific nightmare, slenderman. Jongin shudders again. It’s been years since he played that game.

 

He left through the back end of the building since Soojung was less likely to patrol through there, and all he'd have to do is get back before her so she doesn't notice Jongin's absence. 

 

Circling around to the library where he met Kyungsoo last time, Jongin sneaks around the perimeter of the forest, concealed enough that zombies outside the forest can't spot him, yet close enough to the edge that, should it come to it, he wouldn't have to escape through the perilous obstacle course that is a dark forest.

 

Of course, he also wouldn't have to try to escape through any forest or open space at all if he just stayed back in the hideout. It's kind of stupid, but Jongin wanted to try his luck finding Kyungsoo again. The burning curiosity about zombies that can talk, and about Kyungsoo himself, especially, keeps him up at night. As he gets within sight of the library building, however, he looks up to see a figure standing there. His heart stops.

 

"Hey," it whispers. It's Kyungsoo. He jogs closer.

 

Meanwhile, Jongin tries to recover from cardiac arrest.

 

"What the fuck, you scared me," Jongin says.

 

"Whoops," Kyungsoo says. Not even a fucking sorry. He grabs Jongin by the shoulder when he’s within reach and holds him firm while he rubs the pulse point in Jongin's neck. It’s oddly intimate for a second meeting but not unpleasant.

 

"Uhh-"

 

"I'm masking your scent," he says, switching to the other point.

 

"Is just rubbing my neck with your hand enough?"

 

Kyungsoo starts rubbing under Jongin's ear. "I can rub you in other places if you want," he says with a smirk. It lasts a second before he bursts out laughing. Jongin laughs, too.

 

They got to the library roof they sat on last time in relative silence in case the other zombies could hear them, and they whispered to each other in the dark while alternating between looking at the sky and each other.

 

“What’s it like having super-senses?” Jongin asks, looking at the sky. Yup, he confirms, that’s the sky. 

 

"Zombies don't really have supernatural senses. You'd just be surprised how developed your human senses are once you really start relying on them to survive."

 

Jongin nods thoughtfully at that. “Your turn.”

 

"What's it like being alive in the apocalypse?"

 

Jongin hums in thought. "You're alive too, you know."

 

"No I'm not."

 

"You can move, you can eat, and you can die. Doesn't that make you a living thing?" 

 

Kyungsoo lists on his fingers, "I can't grow height or hair or nails, I can survive somewhat without eating, and I can't reproduce without infecting a pre-existing person. There are just as many reasons to believe I'm not alive as to believe I am. Plus, in a zombie apocalypse, the distinction is between zombies and humans, so if you’re a zombie then you’re not human anymore. So my question is more along the lines of what’s it like being a survivor?”

 

Jongin studies Kyungsoo's face carefully. He doesn't look bitter. Jongin thought he might have touched a nerve, debating what it means to be alive with a zombie, but Kyungsoo seems completely at ease with the subject as if he's considered it countless times on his own. Jongin decides that Kyungsoo is quite possibly the calmest, most easy-going person that Jongin has ever met. There's no jealousy on Kyungsoo's face. All he sees is genuine curiosity, so after a moment's hesitation, he answers.

 

"It's okay, I guess. The apocalypse is certainly different, and it’s hard having to change my priorities and habits, but it’s life. On some days I think I feel just as content in the apocalypse as I would have in normal life.”

 

“And other days?”

 

Jongin looks over at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo’s looking at him. “Other days I imagine how the last human might feel, and I think if that’s the last feeling a human will feel on Earth, then is it worth even trying to further the human race so we could ultimately get to that underwhelming and melancholy ending? And then Junhong will jump-scare me or I’ll beat Zitao at arm-wrestling and it’ll stop being that kind of day.

 

Kyungsoo gives him a funny look. “You're so…”

 

“So what?”

 

“You're like a character trope. The nihilistic emo one with piercings and tattoos.”

 

Jongin laughs. He’s a little too loud, but nothing happens and he finds himself forgetting to be cautious. "You have no idea how happy hearing that makes me. I asked my mom if I was allowed to get a nostril piercing, and she said if I got a 95% or above average she'd consider it."

 

“Did you?”

 

"I might have, if the semester ended before all this shit happened."

 

Kyungsoo snorts. “So you're a nerd, huh? All the athletic ability and black clothing threw me off,” he paused, “and your sculpted biceps,” he adds as an afterthought.

 

Jongin snaps around to look at Kyungsoo, but his look isn’t returned, so he just ducks his head with an embarrassed laugh. "Thanks," he says. It feels insufficient. "I mean, exercise helps with cognitive ability and stuff."

 

Jongin sees Kyungsoo's wry smile out of the corner of his eye. "Does being attractive help too?"

 

Jongin flounders. "Maybe? People tend to trust attractive people more?" he tries. He didn't mean to admit to being attractive, but Kyungsoo’s just joking anyway. It’s not like he’d actually flirt with Jongin since that would essentially be the equivalent of playing with his food.

 

Jongin shakes the thoughts out of his mind and tries to think of something to talk about. He suddenly remembers what Taemin told him to say. “So, uh, as much as I like you flirting with me, I need to change topic for a second.”

 

“Yeah?” Kyungsoo says, infuriatingly  _ not _ reacting to how Jongin claimed he was flirting. How the hell is Jongin supposed to decipher what Kyungsoo is saying if Kyungsoo remains so nonchalant about everything?

 

_ Focus, Jongin. This is important _ , he chides himself. “So uh. Remember that thing you said? About not being able to afford virtue in the apocalypse and doing what you need to survive?”

 

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, looking at Jongin curiously. “Is this where you tell me you’re going to kill me?”

 

Jongin laughs. “Fuck no. You’re the funniest guy I know, and like I said, people trust attractive people more, so I trust you with my life,” Jongin inserts a cheesy wink because he can’t stop himself, and he continues “I just… can’t say the same for all the new zombies in the area.”

 

Kyungsoo hides a smile behind his hand at Jongin’s wink and motions for him to go on.

 

Jongin gnaws on the inside of his cheek, unsure of how to continue. “I guess I’m asking for your permission? I travel with a small gang of people that I care about a lot, and we’re pretty vulnerable because one of us is injured. We have to stay in the area until he’s healed, but suddenly this person came and died, and the smell is potent enough for a bunch of zombies to come along, and we’re all kind of worried that the zombies are going to come for us next? So they kind of want to do something about it, like kill off a bunch of them at once so they don’t have a chance to hurt us. But the thing is, no one but Taemin knows zombies could be rational, thinking people like you, and I wanna know what you think about this. Do you think we should do something about all the zombies? Even if it’s murder?”

 

Kyungsoo blinks before pulling his face into a smirk. “Hell yeah, do it! We’ve already established that I kill and eat people to survive right? This doesn’t bother me at all, and I have to compete harder for resources with them around, anyway. Do you need help?”

 

Jongin is speechless. He really didn’t think it would be this easy to convince Kyungsoo, but the guy never fails to surprise him. “Could you help us think of an idea? Amber wants to throw the body in the river and make them chase after it so they’ll drown. Taemin wants to light the forest on fire and run for it. Junhong suggested making someone bleed a trail for zombies to follow away from our area.”

 

“I think the first idea would have worked on the first wave of zombies, but most zombies nowadays can swim. Burning down the forest would suck for me, so I urge you not to do it, and I’m pretty sure the last plan would end up with the bleeding person dead,” Kyungsoo muses.

 

“Shit,” Jongin breathes, “what should we do?”

 

“I like the idea of using fire, actually. What if you baited the zombies into the library with fresh blood and lit them on fire? Then you could spare a couple people to try to keep the fire from spreading, and the bleeding person just runs the hell away and hopes no zombies are left to chase them.”

 

Jongin furrows his eyebrows in thought. He could see it working. “That means I’ll probably have to be the bait since I’m the best runner,” he said.

 

Kyungsoo swears. “Nevermind then, that’s a terrible idea.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Because I don’t want you to get hurt,” Kyungsoo says, avoiding eye contact like he’s embarrassed. Jongin cooes on the inside, and it takes all the willpower in his body not to comment on it. So much willpower, in fact, that he doesn’t have any left to stop himself from smiling the rest of the day. Tragic.

 

~

 

Taemin claps his hands, a signal for  _ pay attention _ that they all agreed on. “Alright guys, listen up! Tomorrow morning Jongin, Amber, and I are going to sneak into the library. Jongin cuts himself inside, we cover him until he’s done. Jongin goes back while Amber and I wait on the roof of the library. Junhong and Soojung come in a bit and the four of us will light the fire and do our best to keep any zombies from escaping the library, Thankfully, Zitao won’t be alone defending the base at any point. Sound good?”

 

Everyone nods, and Jongin spares a curious thought for how Taemin became their unofficial leader so naturally.

 

“Junhong, you can go back to guard duty,” Taemin says.

 

Junhong leaves with a salute, and everyone else goes back to doing their own thing. 

 

~

 

The zombies are  _ everywhere. _ It’s early enough in the morning that the sun isn't going to be up for a few minutes yet, but Jongin, Amber, and Taemin are sneaking around the borders of the forest. Jongin has his knife on him, and he has to actively stop himself from whipping it at something the moment he hears a branch crack, breathing slowly and praying against all hope that no zombies have spotted them yet.

 

Somehow, walks to the library with Kyungsoo before felt a lot shorter than walking with Amber and Taemin now, but that would make sense since he's so tense at the moment that everything around him - including time - felt frozen stiff as well.

 

They eventually get to the library, though, and Amber waits outside while Taemin and Jongin enter the pitch black library, peeking around corners to see if there are any hidden zombies.Sound from the outside are muffled in a way that makes them feel isolated, and Jongin’s pretty sure he’s been holding his breath since he entered.

 

There’s a quiet growl, and Jongin stops in his place. He’s pretty sure his heart stopped too. He feels Taemin brush against his hand in the dark before grabbing it, and they step carefully forward together. Everything in Jongin’s mind screams  _ trapped _ . They’re trapped here in a dark library with an unknown number of zombies when Jongin happens to have nothing but a single knife on him, and the only thing keeping Jongin from the grip of sheer panic is Taemin’s presence next to him. He trusts Taemin. Taemin is capable and smart and will know what to do. Hopefully.

 

Taemin pulls him in a little closer and runs his fingers on his arm, quick staccato taps up to his elbow, and then presses three fingers on his forearm. Jongin’s confused before he realizes he probably wants him to run on the count of three. He squeezes Taemin’s hand in silent acknowledgement.

 

Taemin presses one finger into his arm.  _ One.  _ Then. a second beside it.  _ Two. _ The moment Jongin feels a third finger, he turns and sprints blindly back where he came from with Taemin, feet pounding on carpeted floor. Growls chase them, but Jongin doesn’t dare think about what might happen if he can’t outrun them this time. 

 

They reach the doors of the library and push them open without stopping, letting them swing closed on the zombies behind them. Amber’s ready, like she always is, and the three of them take down the zombies in the filtered light of sunrise with impromptu weapons forged from whatever they could find in the shops and adrenaline singing through their veins. It’s panicked and desperate and Jongin’s mind funnels down to swinging a metal bar that used to belong to a clothing rack over and over again at the snarling monsters.

 

There were only four zombies in total, and Jongin sneaks back in the library before anything else can go wrong. He slits his wrist with the knife, figuring if kids back in high school did it, it couldn’t have that many lasting negative effects, and squeezes the area. Blood drips on the floor; he grits his teeth in pain. He’s experienced a lot worse, everyone who’s survived this long has, but it’s still unpleasant. 

 

He hears a distinct snarl outside, and that’s his cue to leave. He wipes the knife on the carpet and licks his wound to get the traces of blood off, and sprints for his life out of that library. Amber and Taemin should be on the roof of the building now, but Jongin doesn’t turn back to check. He takes the long way around the forest to avoid tripping on tree roots and hides every time he sees a zombie. It’s a pattern. Rushing past green and brown and then hiding while something rushes past him, and repeat. 

 

It takes forever to get back to Zitao and the others, but he manages. He’s a heaving mess by the time Junhong and Soojung leave, sweat plastering his hair to his neck and forehead, but he’s alive. By some amazing miracle, he’s alive.

 

Zitao offers him their communal jar of honey, and Jongin slathers some on his wound, careful not to disturb it too much. Junhong risked a leg and an arm to collect that honey once upon a time, and it’s saved their asses when they got flesh wounds. Honey is anti-bacterial, doesn’t expire, and masks the scent of blood from zombies, and it’s become the commodity everyone in their group associates with comfort and care. Jongin thanks Zitao quietly and lays back to rest. Not much else to do but wait, now.

 

~

 

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and Jongin is back with Kyungsoo. Everything is right with the world again. Kyungsoo did a crazily brave thing earlier. He picked a handful of flowers from next to the lake and around the forest, mostly sorry looking weeds with their thorns picked off, and went to their base. Something about a teenaged zombie with a bouquet must have inspired enough curiosity in Amber to hold off on killing him and talk, and Kyungsoo’s seemingly natural charm convinced her to ask Jongin to meet him outside. She teased Jongin immensely as he went, but ultimately agreed not to tell anyone else about them, for now.

 

The two of them went back to the library roof, and Jongin finds it no less romantic knowing he’s sitting on a roof that houses numerous burn zombie corpses. He’s loyal, he wouldn’t cheat on Kyungsoo by thinking about  _ other _ rotting people. 

 

“What’s it like being a zombie?” he asks, resting his head on Kyungsoo’s legs.

 

Kyungsoo purses his lips. “It’s not great. I feel tired all the time. I’m constantly in competition with other zombies for food, and as a result, have little to no interaction with others. My memory has gone to shit. I found a cute human boy I like, but sometimes I think about eating his dick as much as I think about sucking it.”

 

Jongin’s head snaps up from his thigh, looking Kyungsoo in his bloodshot eyes. “I… I think that was the worst confession I ever got. Wait, the cute human boy is me right?”

 

“Jongin, I brought you flowers this morning. You’re sleeping on my lap. You’re so vulnerable right now I could kill you and devour your carcass, but I’m not. I’m not exactly being subtle here.”

 

“Right, right, sorry. Just checking. I like you too, Soo. You’re undead, but for some reason…” Jongin pauses for dramatic effect, and he can see Kyungsoo unconsciously hold his breath for a second, “you make me feel more alive.”

 

Kyungsoo hits him with his own flowers and buries his smile in them, and Jongin has never felt happier.


End file.
